Contents of the WA1YTW.DOC file

JOE,AFTER HAVING LOOKED AT PC HAM V 1.5, I PONDERED QUITE A BIT, AND THEN AS IUSE DBASE 3 AND 3+, I WONDERED WHAT WOULD HAPPEN. WELL ALL HELL BROKE LOOSEAND THE FOLLOWING (AND THE ACCOMPANYING .PRGS AND .DBFS ARE THE RESULT.

AFTER I DID THIS AND WROTE THE STUFF BELOW, I READ YOUR DOC FILE AGAIN,AND THOUGHT BEFORE I DID ANYTHING WITH THIS STUFF I SHOULD COMMUNICATEWITH YOU.....PLEASE LOOK AT WHAT I HAVE DONE, AND LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK.NOTE: I AM NOT A PROGRAMMER , NOR DO I PROFESS TO BE, AS I'M SURE YOU WILLSEE FROM MY MODS TO YOUR STUFF AS WELL AS MY OWN....I'M SURE MANY OF THE.PRG COMMANDS COULD BE CLEANED UP!

AT LEAST I DID THINK TO WRITE NOTES AND DOCUMENT MY RESULTS....ELSE I'DHAVE BEEN MORE LOST FOR A LOT LONGER THAN THE 6 MONTHS I WAS!

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR WHAT YOU THINK, AND MAYBE SOMETHING HERE WILL BE OFUSE TO YOU.....IF SO I'D LIKE TO SEE A NEWER VERSION OF PC-HAM....THE ONETHAT THE SHAREWARE GUYS PUT OUT IS USELESS, WHICH IS WHY YOU NEVER GOT AREGISTRATION FROM ME......

I DO HAVE A FEW MORE THOUGHTS FLOATING AROUND , BUT YOU MAY HAVE DONE MUCHMORE....THIS BECAME A WAY TO FILL UP THE DAYS I SPEND LAYING DOWN WHILERECUPERATING FROM ANOTHER OF MY MANY OPERATIONS...I AM NOT IN THE BUSINESSOF PROGRAMMING, NOR DO I WANT TO BE; I AM A DX'ER THO...AND IF I SPENT $$ON EVERY PROGRAM I SAW THAT LOOKED INTERESTING, AND THEN DISCOVERED DIDNOT DO WHAT I WANTED, I'D BE IN TROUBLE WITH THE BANK, THE IRS, MY WIFE,AND I'D BE LIVING IN A SHELTER FOR THE HOMELESS!! HI HI... IF YOU CARE TO RESPOND MY ADDRESS IS:SCOTT PORTER WA1YTWRFD 1 BOX 78AFITZWILLIAM, NH 03447603 585 3330 73 DE SCOTT/WA1YTW------------------------------------------------------------------------

These programs were originally written in dbase 2, i have converted most,and debugged as many of the conversions as i have found bugs in, so far!SO USE WITH DBASE 3....OR 3+....(UNLESS U CONVERT THEM AGAIN)

The main logbook program has been changed to use logreal when V is pressed,instead of to transfer from the basic log....as the basic programs werewritten in a non-pc compatible form, so i have not included them here.Most programs written in dbase are here, tho modified and 1 is notaccessed by the main program...(it only takes changing 2 lines inlogbook.prg to restore that function).

I setup logreal.prg to use the system date and time for real time loggingof contacts..so your system clock must be set to utc for proper time/dateto be logged...it takes the last logged band(you can override/change bands)mode, and reports....i suggest that u never answer Y to the question 'Isthis the final log entry ?' or similar, as this starts changing the commentsfield .... it erases comments and inserts qso numbers in the entire log!So if u, like me, keep stuff in comments(only 10 chars long) that u may wantto keep....answer N to that question when exiting the module!

Future mods may include qsl printing(labels) as soon as i get the flowstraight in my mind.... ( LOOK BELOW )

The dxcc update file(S) should be on drive c, not drive b as stated in the docs...I see no reason that it couldn't be changed to reside in the subdir of allthe other files, but i haven't gotten around to it yet...DONE!

There are 3 extra fields in the dbf file of the log... these fields i addedto allow entering stuff non- chronologically, and then use the dbase sortroutine to put contacts back in date / time order.....these fields are:MO (month)DA (day)YR (year)this was also helpful when printing qsls, so the format of the datecan be changed to make the month appear as 3 chars,ie:jan ... somethingnot confusing to our Europeans friends....SO I SUGGEST ENTERING DATES IN THE MMDDYY FORMAT OR ELSE YOU MAY FINDTHAT SOME THINGS DON'T WORK AS EXPECTED...NOTE: PC-HAM DOCS SAY YYMMDD-BUT IF YOU DO THINGS MAY GET WEIRD!!! (READ THAT WILL GET WEIRD) ***THE DATE FIELD IS NOW A DATE TYPE FIELD AND MUST BE USED WITH MM/DD/YY FORMAT! (DBASE II DID NOT HAVE DATE TYPE FIELDS)ALSO THE TIME SHOULD BE ENTERED MANUALLY IN HH:MM FORMAT....I HAVEEXPANDED THE DBF FILES TO ACCEPT 5 SPACES IN THE TIME FIELD, THISWORKS NICELY WHEN USING THE SYSTEM CLOCK/LOGREAL MODULE....DON'T FORGET THE ':' WHEN ENTERING DATA....

WHEN USING THE LOGPRINT MODULE, BE SURE TO ANSWER THE QUESTIONS...LIKE STARTING PAGE, ETC WITH AT LEAST A 1.....BOY, IT TOOK ME AWHILE TO FIGURE THAT OUT!!! MORE WEIRD STUFF! CR'S DON'T WORK!!!

AS SOON AS YOU START THE LOGBOOK PROGRAM...TURN CAPS LOCK ON...THAT ALSO TOOK ME A WHILE TO FIGURE OUT! OTHERWISE IT JUST BEEPS ATYOU, AND RETURNS YOU TO THE MAIN MENU....

I HAVE ALL THESE FILES IN MY DBASE SUB-DIR....I HAVE A BATCH FILE IN MY DIRECTORY OF BATCHES TO START IT FROMANYWHERE....THE BATCH FILE GOES LIKE THIS:C:CD\A\DATABASE\DB3PLUSDBASE LOGBOOK...YOU COULD ALSO ADD CD\ TO RETURN U TO YOUR ROOT WHEN DONE...BUT YOU STILLWOULD HAVE TO TYPE :QUIT AT THE '.' PROMPT....AND THEN SOMETIMES I LIKETO DO OTHER STUFF IN DBASE THAT THIS STUFF DOESN'T DO.......(YET!)

PACKAGE WILL NOW UPDATE BY BAND OR MODE.....MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ON YOUR DXCC SUBDIR A .DBF FILE FOR EACH OF THE 9 BANDSAND 4 MODES: DXCC.DBF DXCC10.DBF DXCC12.DBF DXCC15.DBF DXCC17.DBF DXCC20.DBF DXCC30.DBF DXCC40.DBF DXCC80.DBF DXCC160.DBF DXCCCW.DBF DXCCSSB.DBF DXCCRTTY.DBF

DO THIS BY COPYING ....BLANKDX.DBF

COPY BLANKDX.DBF C:DXCC.DBF " " C:DXCC10.DBFAND SO ON TILL YOU HAVE ALL 13.....

** THE PROGRAM NOW WILL PRINT QSL LABELS....THE WAY I DID THIS WAS TOEXPAND THE QSL MENU....WHEN YOU HIT 'Q' IN THE MAIN MENU, YOU GO TO ANEW MENU. HITTING Q AGAIN PUTS YOU IN UPDATE QSL STATUS. HITTING ANYTHINGELSE ON THE MENU (EXCEPT *) PUTS YOU IN SENDQSL FOR THE BAND/MODE SELECTED....THE SENDQSL PROGRAM MAKES LABELS FOR CONTACTS NOT MARKED AS CONFIRMEDIN THE SELECTED DXCC DATABASE....BUT FOUND AS WORKED IN THE LOG DATABASE.THIS RESULTS IN A LABEL FOR ALL UNCONFIRMED CONTACTS WITH UNCONFIRMEDCOUNTRIES .... USEFUL FOR MASS MAILINGS WITHOUT TOO MUCH EFFORT....YOU MUST GET INTO DBASE AND MODIFY THE LABEL FORM OR YOU WILL GET WA1YTWLAYOUT AND TEXT!!!!!** A BUG: I CAN'T GET IT TO PRINT ON THE RIGHTMOST LABEL OF MY 2 UP LABELS.....SO IF U USE TWO UP LABELS YOU'LL HAVE TO SAVE THE UNUSED ONES AND REINSERT THEM THE OTHER WAY NEXT TIME OR WASTE HALF YOUR LABELS......(* NEVER RUN LABELS BACK- WARDS THROUGH YOUR PRINTER.....I HAVE A FRIEND WHO DID, AND SPENT AN ENTIRE EVENING CLEANING GUM AND PAPER FROM THE INSIDE OF HIS PRINTER!!! WITH PARTS ALL OVER THE PLACE!) I THINK THE BUG IS DUE TO THE WAY THE PROGRAM SEARCHES AND THE WAY THE LABEL STATEMENT IS WRITTEN.......??

IS QSLING AS CARDS COME IN USEFUL? THAT MEANS LOADING LABEL FORMS EACHTIME A CARD COMES IN , UNLESS DONE IN BATCHES.....WHICH SLOWS THE RESPONSETIME CONSIDERABLY.....??